Today we’d like to introduce you to Patricia Isis.
Hi Patricia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I took Saturday morning art lessons at the Unitarian Church in South Miami from the age of 4 to 11, when my amazing art teacher, Rudolph Valentino Adams, was killed in a car accident on the way to art class. (See my pastel portrait of him when I was 11). We were all devastated! Since it was 1969, the year after Martin Luther King was assassinated, my parents would not let me attend his funeral because we are white and he was Black.
In the years that followed, I combed through many books in search of a way to honor Mr. Adams. When I was 14, I discovered the book Creative Art Therapy by Arthur Robbins and Linda Beth Silbey. After reading it cover to cover, I knew that I had to be an art therapist. Mr. Adams created such a healing and hospitable environment for us children, I knew and still know in my heart, that this was a way to give back the love he gave us….
And it continues to be a love affair for me, as I have been practicing art therapy since 1980, when I obtained my Master’s Degree in Expressive Therapies with an emphasis on art therapy in 1980 from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since then, I have also obtained a Ph.D. in 2003 in Expressive Therapies with an emphasis on art therapy and certification as a Mindful Self-Compassion instructor in 2017. Additionally, I have been a licensed mental health counselor and supervisor in Florida since 1984.
For over 45 years, I have conducted positive-based mindful self-compassion sessions, workshops, trainings, and seminars in private practice and at the Clinical Art Therapy Department of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, hospitals, day treatment programs, homeless shelters, and more.
I am the author of The Mindful Doodle Book: 75 Creative Exercises to Help You Live in the Moment.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Many struggles! As Thich Nhat Hanh writes: “No mud, no lotus.”
The most recent struggle is a late-stage diagnosis that I feared was a death sentence three years ago. I named my diagnosis “Gertrude” and changed my relationship with her so that I was empowered rather than helpless and hopeless. Gertrude taught me a ton and is gone now, thanks to many factors, including a miracle drug for which I qualified. The gifts or silver linings from my experience with Gertrude keep emerging through my life journey. I keep a painting journal to document the richness of being alive! When I decided to go to MD Anderson after four medical opinions, I shared my painting entitled “Going with the Flow” with my endocrinologist surgeon. She noted that the color of the sky in the painting happened to be the same color as our adrenal gland (which was her focus in the surgery). We were both excited to acknowledge how powerful our symbolic expression can be. She encouraged me to write to the President of MD Anderson and tell him to bring art therapy to everyone there. It has now been just over a year that they created a VP The Art Experience position. This individual is responsible to overseeing every piece of art, architecture, and landscape as healing components for all. Art and Music Therapies are also offered to all. What an enormous silver lining this is! (Please see photo of the “Go with the Flow” painting)
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am most proud of being able to inform and inspire others to heal themselves through loving, connected presence and personal symbolism in numerous ways without the need for artistic talent. I love being with our diverse community and bringing people together so they can realize through the arts that they matter!
I continue to gratefully bring the resources and opportunities for cultivating mindfulness and mindful self-compassion (MSC) collaborating with several non-profit organizations such as Mindful Kids Miami who are dedicated to bringing mindfulness and self-kindness to the communities of the world through the grown ups, LoveforLily, which is devoted to developing coaching cohorts for families in the neonatal intensive care units around Denver, Colorado, and Lungevity, which exists to promote survivorship for lung cancer patients all over the world.
I also lead free weekly Circle of Public Practice virtual sessions through the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion in San Diego, California. Sessions are available twice daily on zoom. https://centerformsc.org/pages/circles-of-practice
I supervise provisional art therapists providing direct services to multiple populations
I am expanding the What’s on my mind research study to include cancer survivors and the general public in the USA and Australia.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
The Mindful Doodle Book: 75 Creative Exercises to Help You Live in the Moment
The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook
The MSC app
Insight Timer
https://centerformsc.org/pages/circles-of-practice
Mindful Kids Miami
Vizcaya Late
LoveforLily
Lungevity
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.MiamiArtTherapy.com
